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RV-4 Canopy Prop-up

H

Hooter

I'm New Here
The RV-4 I bought has a canopy "prop-up" latch to allow some airflow on the ground when it's hot. It is pretty much just a sliding door/gate latch and I've found that the vibration tends to cause it to slip open causing the canopy to fly up - not good. Anyone have any other designs or ideas for propping the canopy slightly open for airflow on the ground?
 
There are others

A friend built one for his RV4 project. It has proven so popular it is now on several planes. It involves adding a stub rod (bolted on) to the existing canopy rod. I can post some pics if you like.
 
Pics?

Id like to see a picture of the "stub rod" set-up, as I have looked at a half dozen different ideas, all of them pretty good, but havent comitted yet on mine to which way Im going to go.
 
If there isn't anything in the way, drill an additional hole above each of the canopy latch holes. One in the panel and one in the aft bulkhead. Works great in the rocket.

Russ
HRII
 
drdestructo said:
If there isn't anything in the way, drill an additional hole above each of the canopy latch holes. One in the panel and one in the aft bulkhead. Works great in the rocket.

Russ
HRII
Click to expand...

This is a very good solution unless you don't have the room, as explained. One doesn't have to open the canopy very much to make significant difference. That big fan will move lots of air by you. In fact, if you open it too much, the wind will interfere with your communications even at low idle.
Cheers,
 
Open, sez-me!

Hooter said:
The RV-4 I bought has a canopy "prop-up" latch to allow some airflow on the ground when it's hot. It is pretty much just a sliding door/gate latch and I've found that the vibration tends to cause it to slip open causing the canopy to fly up - not good. Anyone have any other designs or ideas for propping the canopy slightly open for airflow on the ground?
Click to expand...

Hooter,
Welcome to the site and congrats on your "store bought" RV4. To quote the Knight in the search for the Holy Grail, "You have chosen wisely". This thread covers many ideas: http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=74693&highlight=rv4+canopy

On my Four I used a Nautilus weight pin attached to a throttle knob drilled with small cotter keys to allow it to slide 3" fore and aft through the canopy skirt. It doubles as a safety catch inflight if for some unknown reason someone tried to open the latch. On my Rocket I used a much more involved design that allowed you to use the canopy latch handle to secure the canopy 3" above the rail for taxi, and to lock it closed.

V/R
Smokey

PS: Many moons ago when the RV4 was the only 2 seat RV and 100LL was a buck and a half a gallon, a bunch of us 4-builders came up with ideas for the design to fix known problems. One of them was the canopy "hold-open" device. Most great ideas were posted in the now defunct RV8R newsletter form Van's, sadly missed. Thanks to DR, there is a much greater resource. Many of the good ideas on this site have already been discussed in the past by those who have gone before. Thread search is a great tool...FYI
 
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